In his series Aguas Malas, Cuban artist Leslie Sardinias imagines an underwater world between his homeland and the United States. These 90 miles represent a contemporary Atlantis, rife with the memories of those who were not able to complete the journey. Ciénaga, I, (“swamp”) mixed media on Katoishi paper, is a subaqueous biosphere in which natural elements swirl around tendrils of newsprint. The winner of the Lorenzo de Medici Award at the Florence Biennale, Sardinias has been exhibited at the National Museum of Fine Art in Havana and the Angel Museum in Segovia, Spain.

Leslie Sardinias (Cuban, b. 1974) works across a variety of mediums, from drawing to performance. Based in NYC, of central concern to Sardinias is the relationship between the United States and Cuba–both in terms of the immigrant experience and the geopolitical chess game that has played out between the two for over a century. As a point of entry into these complex issues, he often employs the motif of the sea as a way to explore the ideas of boundaries, economic and cultural exchange, and transnational communication. Sardinias has been exhibited around the world at institutions like the Museum of Fine Arts of Havana and the Florence Biennale and can also be found in many prominent collections, including the Spanish Royal Collection and the Melia Cohiba Collection.